October 30 2015

"Here we are," said Dr Khan as they arrived right out of the centre, "The Sci-Fi Con that you attended last week."

"Right," said Andrea, "I should be arriving with Bridget in about five minutes."

"But Dr Khan," said Andrea again, "I can't go there and warn her, for it will screw up the entire timeline."

"We need to create a diversion," said the doctor, "Hold on."

Suddenly, Andrea saw her best friend, Bridget approaching the centre. The memory of she and Bridget walking hand-in-hand to the centre flashed in her mind. But to her shock, this time, as she saw Bridget walking, she was stunned. Bridget was walking with another girl, and not Andrea!

Andrea yelled and Dr Khan quickly seized her. Dr Khan and Andrea ran and hid behind a wall as Bridget stared at them.

"Are you out of your mind? Didn't I tell you the first rule of time travel that we must not be seen under whatever circumstances!"

"I'm sorry Dr Khan, but I wasn't thinking right," admitted Andrea.

"Wasn't thinking right?" said Dr Khan, sarcastically, "Come on Andrea!"

"I'm sorry Dr Khan," apologized Andrea, "But I was just in shock."

"What are you talking about?" asked the doctor, who was now visibly relaxed.

"How am I not next to Bridget? We were literally walking next to each another when we entered the convention center," said Andrea.

"Heck, I even entangled her hand in mine," said Andrea.

Dr Khan looked at her suspiciously.

"I think I know what's happened," said Dr Khan with disappointment in his voice.

"What's happened Dr Khan? Tell me!" Andrea exclaimed.

"He's erased your existence completely."

*******************************************

"It's like this," said Dr Khan, "Whoever's hunting you down, they've prevented your mere birth from taking place."

"But I don't understand," said the crest-fallen Andrea, "Who's been having a deadly grudge against me that they'd go all out to prevent my existence?"

Dr Khan and Andrea were at a Starbucks outlet. They ordered coffee as they needed to refuel before their journey.

"Perhaps you've done something in the future that made you incur someone's wrath," said Dr Khan, "Things like this probably is normal in the future."

"But which sane person would go to that extent in hating me?" retorted Andrea, "That doesn't make sense at all."

"Of course it doesn't make sense Andrea," said Dr Khan, "If only I knew what you were about to do in the future, I would have stopped you."

After a brief pause and sigh, Andrea said, "So even if we travel into the future or further past, I'm not going to find..."

"Excuse me? I'm?"

"Fine. We're not going to find anything useful," said Andrea, "I guess I just have to continue living a non-existent life."

"Don't give it up so easily Andrea," said Dr Khan with full of encouragement as he saw Andrea's sadness, "I'm sure there's going to be a way to fix this."

Sure there is, thought the man who was seated on the table at the corner of the cafe. He was dressed in a black coat. Wait until they see the surprise I've got for them.

"Let's get back into the TiMo," said Dr Khan as he sipped his coffee.

"What's TiMo?"

"The name of my time machine. Why, isn't that a nice name?"

"I would prefer something more exotic than TiMo."

"Too bad the name stays," said Dr Khan as he finished his coffee, threw it into the waste bin and walked out of the cafe. Andrea followed him a moment later, unaware that their movements were being followed.

The man who was watching them, casually tucked his newspaper aside and walked out of the cafe unnoticed. As he noticed Dr Khan and Andrea walking back to their time machine, he muttered under his breath, "They have no idea what are they returning to."

**********************

Present (Dr Khan's version)

The timeline that Dr Khan and Andrea returned to, however, was a far cry from the original. Dr Khan was shocked to see his laboratory converted into a restaurant. He confronted the restaurant employees, and asked him about the laboratory that had existed. "Sir, there had never been any lab in this area."

"Do you even know who I am?"

"No," said an employee, "We have never seen you before."

Dr Khan noticed that some of his students were sitting in the restaurant. He noticed that they were staring at him, as if they had never seen him before.

"Who's that?" asked one of the girls in a low whisper.

At once, Dr Khan knew what had happened. He rushed back to the store where Andrea was waiting.

"My life! Andrea, my life's gone!" yelled Dr Khan.

"Dr Khan! It's happened to you too?"

"The Tifias have got a hold of me," said the scientist, "They've wiped out my existence just like what they did to yours."

"I don't get it Dr Khan," said Andrea, "How would they have known that we were alive?"

"Someone must have been tailing us," said the scientist in a wary voice, "Come on. We need to get to a safe place."

"Oh no you aren't!" said a voice from behind.

Just as they were to enter the time machine, four muscular young men clad in black approached them. They pushed Dr Khan and Andrea to the ground. Dr Khan tried to retaliate, but the men were too strong for him. The men bashed the scientist up as Andrea was pinned to the ground by another man.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" yelled Andrea as she had a sudden burst of strength. She pushed the man who was holding her aside, and approached the men who were beating up Dr Khan.

Andrea stunned the men as she karate-kicked the men. Someone came back to fight back but Andrea displaced him easily. Another man tried to bear-hug Andrea but she swooped behind and pushed him to the wall with all of her strength. She took a metal rod nearby and threw it at the men. Three of them fell onto the floor, but one man remained unscathed.

"Wow lady," said the man with an impressed voice, "I'm impressed."

"You better be," said Andrea with a determined voice, "And you better take that back home with you."

Before even the man could say anything, Andrea powerfully kicked him in the stomach and jumped to avoid his counter-attack. The man fell on the floor with a thud.

As soon as that happened, Andrea took the half-unconscious Dr Khan and raced into the time machine. She was unsure of which button to press that would take her to safety. But before she could do anything, she saw Dr Khan was beginning to stir.

"Dr Khan, what should I do?"

"Press the yellow button Andrea," he said in a faint voice, "It'll take us to the safe house."

Andrea quickly pressed the yellow button as the time machine disappeared in the unknown. One of the men, who had regained some strength, saw a spectrum of light flash through his eyes but was too weak to stop it.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6